One by one, the flock of pigeons comes closer and heads for the loft in Northampton resident Al Guzara's back yard. To Karner, of Nazareth, and the 25 members of the Northampton Pigeon Racing Club, this day's training flight for the homing pigeons is a practical matter.

The point of pigeon racing, after all, is to win.

To their owners, these are not the same birds that leave unappreciated deposits on the laundry on the clothesline.

Or as Nazareth resident John Yanni says, "These aren't barn pigeons. These birds are clean, kept in a loft and well-cared for. They're not the ones out making a mess on your sidewalk."

The sport, explains 68-year-old Steve Steciw of Northampton, appeals to men and women of all ages and from every walk of life. Lehigh Mountain Combine Inc., the area's only organization for pigeon racing, has 110 members. Among them are doctors, teachers, lawyers, high school students and blue-collar workers.

For Steciw, who knows every one of his 100 birds by sight, racing pigeons are beloved pets -- athletes, if you will.

"I've been flying 50 years," he says. "The attraction is as great as ever. They fly hundreds of miles and come back to my little yard."

Most birds, known as the poor man's race horse, cost in the $50 range. In rare cases, pigeon owners have been known to spend as much as $1,000 for a specially bred bird.

Money, however, doesn't buy success. In this aerial sport, also referred to as marathons in the sky, success is determined by training methods. The bird that bonds with its owner --learning through repetition whose hand feeds and waters it -- and promptly enters it loft, rather than circling overhead or dallying outside the loft, will be the winner.

If a bird doesn't return to its individual loft, its fate is never known.

Karner's son Paul says that one of his father's favorite birds recently failed to return home after a race. "He's been in mourning for the past few days," says the 51-year-old Bangor resident. "It could have been a hawk, a bullet or a telephone line. He'll never know."

In fact, the pigeons' uncanny ability to find their way home remains a mystery.

As they fly a free-wheeling course over cities and countrysides, they are believed to be pulled home by hunger and thirst. Owners, therefore, are careful not to overfeed -- or underfeed -- their birds before races that vary from 100 to 600 miles, depending on the season.

No one knows the birds' exact route home. What is known is that the birds, which average speeds of 50 mph, don't fly in one flock, at a consistent height or in a straight line. Pigeon racers say the winners are those birds that have the confidence to leave the flock and make their own way home.

Had this day's flight been a race, it would have gone like this: Each club's birds are transported to a starting point in crates placed in a vented poultry truck. A liberator, considered the most important person in any pigeon race, checks the weather conditions along the race circuit and decides when and if the birds will be released.

The race begins after the liberator calls the drivers and gives them the time to release the pigeons. Immediately after the first bird returns to its loft, the owner quickly removes the race band attached to the bird's leg, puts the band into a glass vial and places the vial into his synchronized, sealed clock.

The clock punches out the time and speed of the bird's flight, calculated by yards per second to one-thousandth of a yard, on a paper tape. The distance from the starting point to the owner's loft is calculated into the formula to determine flying time.

As you might guess, the sport is not a mere pastime.

The owners not only scrutinize their pigeons' flying times and racing statistics but also carefully plan the birds' sex lives, diligently feed them and meticulously clean their lofts. Ultimately, they strive to breed champion birds.

Most owners, like the elder Karner, have been raising pigeons since they were children. For him and the other racers, his love for the sport is about more than racing.

"I love the thrill of seeing the first bird back, when it tucks its wings in and comes home after competing with another 100 birds," he says as he holds the iridescent-feathered bird. "I love being with my friends and just talking about the beautiful birds."

More information can be found on the club at its Web site: http:// www.angelfire.com/ak/pigeon/index.html

Do you have a suggestion for this column? Call me at 559-2142, write 35 S. 3rd St., Easton, PA 18042 or e-mail kathleen.bercaw